


Maybe you’re the oil to my lye

by Fumiku



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: F/M, Flirty Zim?? Perhaps, Light Swearing, Soapmaking, Subjective third person, aka inconsiderate of others and will fight dirty for what they want, can be interpreted as purely platonic, high hostility, kids being kids, zim "what is dirt" lastname, zim catching feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 07:26:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29962950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fumiku/pseuds/Fumiku
Summary: She smelled like nothing he’d ever encountered, covering her usual pizza stench. It was... Pleasant.His eyes narrowed in determination. He must get her secret. Hewillget it./in which Gaz initiates Zim to homemade soap making
Relationships: Gaz & Zim (Invader Zim), Gaz/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Maybe you’re the oil to my lye

**Author's Note:**

> " _Gaz felt like a puzzle to be cracked, and he almost found himself willing to try his hand at it, even at the cost of getting his fingers cut off by the sharp edged pieces._ "
> 
> I put it in general audiences, but there is some significant hostility and swearing. Things are going to be tense before they get wholesome, which, if you’re here for the soapmaking you’ll have to wait for chapter two! The first chapter is entirely setting up the scene so that it makes sense they’d make soap together or something, i dunno, i overthink things
> 
> I did a lot of research on soapmaking and the relationship between soap and biochemistry so hopefully it will be a nice and accurate depiction in chapter two! I don’t want to make promises preemptively though. Ok I’m done rambling, enjoy!
> 
> Shoutout to @Cookiemonster2000 for inspiring me to take more grammatical liberties when depicting Zim’s dialogue with her own amazing Zim characterisation! :) The shopping segment was also partially inspired from monofpoke‘s headcanon that Gaz shops for her family. A lot of fun stuff happens on the ZaGr discord server!

It was a normal, ever as stinky, boring day. Everything smelled awful, and if it didn’t it was just bland. His senses were attacked by stench everywhere he went on this heap of dirt of a planet and after so long of staying on it he’d grown accustomed to it, not that it ever stopped bothering him though. Alas, he had to stoop down to mix in with the unhygienic humans for his mission, and it was just how life was. Battling stinky sweaty Dib, going home to Gir’s piles of greasy pizza and glued waffles to the walls, then retreating to his moldy underground headquarters.

It was just how life was, and oh, he hadn’t truly realized what he was missing then.

Zim was arguing with Dib in the skool locker hallway, serving flawless incredibly intelligent disses one after another of course. The day’s classes were over and the slowly setting sun from outside the windows nearby was dimming, not bothering the swarms of children going on about their business. He had nothing to look forward to for the rest of the day but working on his next invention at his base, and even then... He had been in a creative rut lately. Not that he didn’t have piles of ideas to work on and try out of course, but still, not any of them was giving him that spark of inspiration... So yes, while smart, his bickering and threats to his arch-nemesis felt... Emptier than usual. He didn’t like it.

Dirt-children were rushing around him to head home and in the corner of his eye he could see the vibrant color of the Dib-sister’s hair coming nearby them. She was shoving through the humans walking in her way, and Zim unfortunately turned out to be in her path.

He didn’t have the time to be horrified at that realization that he was roughly tossed aside by her strong arm. He was ready to comment on it and undoubtedly make her regret pushing him but- a scent in the air, oh so faint, yet so vibrant, like nothing he’d ever encountered.

The Gaz-beast usually smelled rather bland, almost without presence really, if not for the unsubtle hint of a horrible greasy pizza stench sticking to her that is. Not perceptible if he stayed away from her as he tended to do, but if you git close enough it could asphyxiate someone. He could almost taste it... The grease! The _filth_! Ugh, just remembering it made him grimace. Her stench would have been a powerful weapon to weaken the enemy in war, he was sure.

But here, but then, Gaz... She smelled... Good. Like something he’d enjoy filling the air of his home with, like smell wasn’t just a sense to help organisms identify their environment. It was surprising, mesmerizing.

Dib, the girl’s perpetual anger, the chaotic movement of students around them, all of it was forgotten. He could only stare at her as she went to shove past Dib, as confident as ever.

Her hair...

Without even realizing it really, he reached out a finger. It approached her and passed through purple strands, Zim could faintly feel them through his glove.

She froze.

Dib froze.

"Your poof-ball smells good."

He said it absentmindedly, not really to inform her, not really to think outloud.

She didn’t move an inch, back facing him. Dib snarled.

The human boy jumped in between Gaz and Zim, shoving his body in and with his hands to push Zim away from the both of them.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" He stood in front of him, shielding her from his sight, squared up and looking just about ready to scratch his face off.

Zim felt... Strange to have said anything remotely appreciative of a human, especially on such a tivial topic, but this was barely a slip up! This meant nothing. Besides, that smell really was nice, he wasn’t _wrong_.

Zim shifted his position to haughty and hostile to match Dib’s, appropriately pissed and closing one of his eye in the sheer power of his outrage. "Huuuh?! How dare you question Zim’s sanity for simply pointing out an exception to the *filthy* humans! Though I applaud your enormous head for finally implicitly recognizing humans’ natural inferiority. " He had raised his arms in defiance and looked like he was just waiting for Dib to throw the punch his pose promised.

His reply seems to have thrown him off, somehow. "What?! No! That’s- You’re _ridiculous_ , Zim! Don’t creep on my sister, I’m not joking!"

Zim untensed slightly, though still keeping the same amount of hostility as he replied. "Zim will "creep" on whoever he likes." He crossed his arms.

Maybe his choice of words failed him, because he noticed the Dib-sister flinch behind his enemy. She seemed startled and was looking straight at him from above her sibling’s shoulder, an unnatural color tainting her cheeks. He rarely ever saw the Gaz-beast’s eyes open, and never was it in an expression that didn’t invoke the most fatal of dooms like this one, and Zim found himself intrigued.

His eyes attached themselves to hers as if glued, and he vaguely heard then that Dib was passionately ranting at him, all he knew is that he couldn’t care less. For a moment the world could have stilled and he wouldn’t have noticed. Maybe this was a subtle staring contest power battle between the two, or maybe they were both trying to evaluate the other, no matter, Zim could pretend this wasn’t him taking an interest in an human for the first time since ever later.

And he’d have continued forever too, but something compelled him to blink, even though Irkens biologically never required it, and immediately her gaze hardened itself sharply. Her face contorted in confusion, and then her eyes narrowed, searching his face for something, so deep in mysterious calculations that her nose scrunched up, and he might have found her endearingly vulnerable if not for disgust suddenly coloring her expression.

Dib put a hand on his shoulder roughly, which he shouldn’t have been able to- When? How? Was Zim really that distracted? That was a severe weakness, he’d have been dead if he were on battle grounds. All the whining Dib was making finally registered to him and he winced at the loudness of it. He was about to bite his arm off like he deserved when Gaz punched Dib. She didn’t go in for a kill, and yet Zim almost felt pity at the surely painful direct hit... Is what he’d say if Dib didn’t deserve worse! "HAH!" He smiled triumphantly. His familial unit turning on him when he was being protective of her? Why, she never gets less interesting.

His snickering stopped when her darkest stare fell on him, Dib had moved out of the way at the punch and Zim regretted not realizing sooner that Dib was shielding him from danger rather than shielding her from him. He was unprotected if she so desired to attack him, and inflicting pain was one of the few things she did as well if not better than any irken he knew. He shuddered at the thought. She stepped towards him once, fists clenched, and he flinched in fear. "Go wash yourself, you gross mofo."

She was gone. Had turned away and left school ground.

No painful contact, only words of disdain and the cold abscence of... _Something_ she left behind!

It confused him, and he didn’t know if her non-agressive chosen path of action implied something positive or negative regarding him. Surely the purple demon herself wouldn’t let an insult like it had seemed to be go so easily? Was Zim not worthy to be dealth with?! Or was it because their brief connection, though he refused to think of it that way, left her looking upon him more favorably? Which of those hypothesis made him feel more uncomfortable, he did not know.

Their proximity a second ago had given him a reminder of what had led to this situation in the first place. The heavenly smell could almost have made him melt. Envy and jealousy spiked in him, if anyone should smell that good, it should be him. He should be the one to have it. He deserved it the most, what had _she_ accomplished for it? And yet he could not bring himself to target his anger at her like he would have done any other time, for reasons unbeknownst to him.

Gaz felt like a puzzle to be cracked, and he almost found himself willing to try his hand at it, even at the cost of getting his fingers cut off by the sharp edged pieces.

Dib had grown frustrated at his unresponsiveness long ago and had left too, leaving him completely alone, the last rays of the late afternoon taking their leave as well, tainting the skool’s interior a light purple. He was grateful for the solitude. He had things to think about, like how to appropriate the nice smell for himself. Coming back to his senses, he was now painfully aware of the stench of the building where earth-worms mingled and sweated in all day, trash tossed on the floor and things undoubtedly left to rot in lockers. He was horrified to find out that even his own body scent felt inadequate. He rushed to get away from the overwhelming unpleasant smells and fled the skool building.

What happened properly settled in for him as he started walking back to his base. How... How disgusting the purple beast had been...! How _dare_ she tell him to wash himself, whatever that is! And what is a Moophooooo?! How dare she make him want to bring her closer to him! Or feel her head pilosity through his fingers again! She should have stuck with her pizza stink, clearly. Maybe it was lying to himself, but she was easier to tolerate, to ignore, then. He channeled all his anger into kicking the rock on the sidewalk as he approached his home.

The air at his base felt rancid that day. Yes, blissful ignorance might have been better.

But, Zim never was one to ignore a challenge.

The altercation with Dib-stink and the dib-nonstink-sister had made him feel the thirst to conquer! There ought to be the key to his next project there... The smell.

What did she say about it? Washing oneself, was it not? Even though he didn’t know how much of it was an earthen insult and how much was true to life advice, he must look into it at once. By any means, he’ll get to the bottom of this human’s enticing secret.

* * *

Gaz entered the general store and took a shopping cart without greeting any of the employees standing near. Immediately, she pushed it alongside her to follow a path she’d memorized long ago. First, the snacks.

Chips, check. Gum, check. Sour gummies, check. Pizza pockets, check. She went over the rest of the items that were in her cart and was satisfied with what she’d amassed. Everything according to keikaku. Now that the food was settled, she could browse and go get everything for her hobbies’ needs.

The video game section had nothing new from when she last dropped by, and the last visit before that, and the one before it, and by now she’d lost track of when last it was she saw something move at all in her favorite console’s game exhibit. She grit her teeth in repressed anger at the thought of her gameslave 2 growing older and less relevant with time, the company choosing to make a new platform nobody needed that revolutionizes nothing only to get more money. She held in her urge to punch someone and simply left the alley. Whatever, she can just look online for a new game later.

She now headed for the cosmetics section, she was running out of melt and pour bases and oils, besides, she wanted to try new scents. Soap making had been a surprisingly nice use of her time. She liked the process of it and making something herself, something that is both enjoyable and useful. Even just having the power to make any kind of soap with any scent she wished was enormously satisfying.

Yes, she was satisfied. She had picked the hobby up for a month now and the few times she’d made soap so far have been successes. She felt good in her skin. Clean, contrary to the polluted city she lived in. Sure, she didn’t mind some pizza grease on her half the time, but she always had had common sense in hygiene, unlike her brother. She shuddered at the thought of how Dib had become when Zim was gone for a year, the powerful stink managing to penetrate her hazmat suit.

Anyway.

Yeah, thinking about soap had calmed her prior gameslave capitalism induced rage, and thinking of her successes pleased her. The incident with Zim that happened that week nabbed at her mind, but she refused to give it any attention. Could she even consider him complimenting the scent that obviously came from her soap a success? Zim had been his usual weird gross socially awkward self, even if he showed appreciation in her work, her soap, (and worst of all, _her_ ) she preferred just ignoring whatever his deal was that day.

Upon arriving in the soap section, she was taken out of her thoughts by strangely familiar cackling and disgusting annoying gaggles and exclamations. She went in the alley containing the fragrance oils she wanted to browse and found it blissfully empty.

The noises in the next alley quieted down to the clipping of opening and closing soap bottles for a bit. Focusing on her shopping, she took some fragrance oil bottles and read their labels. She observed and judged them, finding one unappealing, one inadequate, and putting another in her cart, and- "OUGH- UeeEEGh-"

Was that- Was that a dying wheeze?

What the actual hell is going on in the alley next to hers? Honestly. She might have to punch someone today after all. Some more human(?) horrible noises registered to her ears before going quiet again, and she was debating putting her shopping on break to go teach a lesson to whichever disgusting freak was making all that ruckus.

She reluctantly put her attention back on the soap making products and tools in front of her after a bit of peaceful silence. Right when her mind was relaxing again, another screech resounded.

The bottle in her grasp was accidentally crushed as her anger spiked, and she couldn’t wait to doom the person responsible of her hatred as soon as now.

She walked at a controlled pace and sharply turned the corner to walk into the soap and shampoo alley. She stopped dead in her tracks, shock freezing her movements. She was expecting a freak, but she wasn’t expecting this, not _him_. Clearly, she should have.

There in the middle of the alley, with a shopping cart full of nonsense she knows he’d never use like cooking mittens, a pig plushie and lettuce, was her brother’s enemy. Liquid soap bottles layed on the floor around him, some opened and oozing soap on the floor, some thrown away in frustration and some simply dropped in dismissal. The shampoo bottles that _were_ on the exhibit were tossled and disorganized. Amiss the complete chaos, the most disturbing was the boy himself, opening every bottle that got under his hand, sniffing it and humming loudly in thought or audibly gagging, and even- licking it?!

What. The. Hell.

Oookay, maybe his deal is an everyday thing this time around. Should she just pretend she never saw this and leave an employee to deal with him? Ugh, but she still has shopping in this section she wants to do. Once again she has to do everything herself.

"Zim, what the hell?" She certainly didn’t want to see Zim that day, and the reveal of it being him had dropped a bucket of ice cold water on her rage, leaving irritation in its place. She approached him in the middle of the alley, stomping as she went.

Zim almost flew as he whirled to face her, startled more than she’d have thought possible and letting out a scared squeal. "Ah!! Step back, Gaz-beast!! How dare you- Were you spying on Zim?!" It seemed he made it a point to yell as loudly as possible to cover up his fear, it only made some other shoppers peer into their alley curiously before deciding they didn’t want any part in whatever the hell was happening in there.

Gaz wanted to punch her temple as the yelling and situation was threatening to give her a headache, but she settled for massaging it. "Ugh. Hell no. No one but my brother would ever want to spy on you, you idiot." She paused, but seeing him squint in distrust back at her only made her patience erode. " _There_ , I answered. Now it’s your turn, what the h-... Actually? I don’t want to hear it, or clean up your mess, can you just stop being a freak and making all those noises? It’s beyond annoying, and I think you know what I do with things that annoy me."

She had opened one of her eyes threateningly, but for the first time instead of the fear she was expecting he just stared back at her, wide eyes, mouth uncharacteristically shut and cheeks slightly darker than usual. He stayed still. She was confused by his reaction, but her hostile expression didn’t drop one bit and her voice boomed with authority still. "Understood?"

He opened his mouth but barely anything audible left it, only a weak "Ah" let itself out. His submissive stance was as much an answer as any other, and while her frustration subsided slowly she felt no satisfaction for having finally settled that mess of a situation. "Good. Now shut the hell up."

She turned around without waiting for an answer and resumed her goddamn shopping. Welp, that had been draining. She put her face in her hands and sighed. What was he even doing here anyway? Weirdo.

This called for some major self-care, and Gaz let herself look at the more expensive fragrances as well. Her eyes closed softly as she smelled one bottle after the other. Oh. She liked that one, the smell almost felt like it cradled her with how soft it was, comforting. She took the bottle away from her nose and read the label, vanilla. Of course.

It was a pretty generic scent, but it had always been an exceptionally nice one. She still liked raspberry scented soap better, but diversity is pretty cool. There was no discount on them but she might as well buy a few while she was at it. She dropped two of them in her cart and as she went back to browse the aisle she caught sight of a pair of piercing purple eyes-

She jumped out of her skin. Staring at her through holes in the shelves separating their respective alleys was Zim. Her face flushed from anger and embarrassment from having been caught off guard and confusion over him being so weird around her lately. It all made her blood boil and fists clenched. "What the hell do you want now?"

He only squinted back, still through the physical barrier of the aisle. "What are you supplying yourself with?"

She didn’t trust him one bit, and she wasn’t in a mood to cooperate. "Why would the horrid gremlin want to know?" She squinted, her gaze diving deeply in his in a way she hoped made him regret his whole life.

He scoffed in outrage and she practically heard him shouting his own ears off in his mind. He grumbled before raising his voice to adress her. "I owe no explanation to the enemy."

She scoffed in irritable amusement, smirking ever so slightly. "Well then, best not to give away my evil camp’s secrets either. Bye." She had what she came for, it sucked she couldn’t take her time, but she was out of here.

She kept pushing her cart away even with Zim audibly yelling in distress and the sound of footsteps scrambling up to her. She huffed.

She made a show of going as quickly as she can while walking but he kept with her, seemingly desperate to get whatever information out of her. "I retract my statement!! Two, eh, intelligent evil individuals can benefit from sharing information from time to time, no?"

She opened one of her eyes and side glanced at him. "Maybe so. But then you shouldn’t mind answering me, _why do you want to know?_ " Suddenly his expression didn’t feel very eager to talk to her, you doing a bad job hiding your frustration there bud.

He croaked words out in a way that sounded almost physically painful to do. "I... Wish to know how you acquired such an alluring scent the other day." She stopped dead in her tracks, as if she’d been stung.

She physically recoiled away from him, suddenly feeling like the typical conversing distance wasn’t nearly enough. He was visibly uncomfortable, meeting her alarmed gaze with an annoyed pout and- Were his cheeks _darker than usual?_ Was he _blushing_?! She was pretty sure she was too oh god- what the hell what the hell what the hell-

So then what he said the other way really didn’t have a creepy undertone? And he really did appreciate her handcraft? Wait, did he want to get into it too? Oh god, that makes sense considering he was in the soap alley, oh god that’s why he was sniffing them like a freak. End her suffering.

She told herself to stop acting like a weirdo and to compose herself again, her body untensed and she took her rightful place in front of her shopping cart again. A healthy amount of frowning was still on her face, but hostility had left it. "And why do you want to know that?"

He gasped in offense and striked a dramatic pose, pointing at her with his accusing finger so intensely you could have thought she killed his dog. "No!! I answered! That’s cheating! It is your turn to answer meE!"

She sighed, but saw his point. She noticed that they were still in the middle of the main alley used to move through the store, and huffed in light frustration. "Fine. Let’s get out of the way first though, I don’t want anyone _else_ annoying me."

He huffed and crossed his arms and swung his head away from her. "Fine!"

She had to keep in a puff of laughter as that. What a pompous idiot. How is he so ridiculous? It passed her mind then that usually she’d have found it annoying, but she supposed she felt merciful that day.

Her cart pulled on the side in a random alley with cat food, she turned to fully face the alien boy next to her. Where to even begin? Maybe she should play this strategically to get as much information as possible. "Well, I’m getting ingredients and supplies for soapmaking, mostly essential oils today."

"Soapmaking?" His eyes perked up. He looked nothing if not genuinely curious.

"Yup. My turn. Why do you want to know how I did to huh... Smell good the other day?"

His calm from a second ago disappeared instantly. "Because I deserve it!! More than you! Filthy smelly humans shouldn’t be allowed to use mysterious technology for nice scents! Give it to Zim!" Spit shot out of his mouth in his speech. Gaz was not impressed.

"Weirdo." She muttered, looking away before the sight of him spitballing idiocies could give her a headache. Zim let out an indignant yell, but controlled his outrage down to shaking and clenched fist.

"Now! What does this soapmaking have to do with the nice scent?"

She shot him a quizzical look. "I mean, you _were_ looking at soaps earlier so I’m guessing you know what soap is?"

He tensed as soon as she asked it, crying out in apparent disapproval. "Aaaah!! Do not deflect with another question! Answer mine!"

Gaz sighed. "It’s for the good of the conversation, Zim. I need to know this to know how to answer your question in a way you’ll understand. Unless you want me to half ass your questions?" Actually, that was a nice idea. She should.

He squinted at her and contemplated it for some seconds. She just boredly stared back at him while he made up his mind. "... Alright. Zim will allow it. The cleansing chalk, yes, I know of soap."

"Figured. Well, good. Then you should know that most often soaps have scents to them. When you use them, then the scent stays with you for a while. I make my own soap, so that’s where the soapmaking comes in." She waited for his reply and it took Zim a bit to realize she was done with her explanation.

"Which is to say?"

"The scent of the other day came from one of my handcrafted soaps, Zim. It’s custom, you can’t get it anywhere. I made it."

The reaction was like a crescendo, Zim gaped in horror. "But- No! That’s unfair!"

Gaz frowned deeply at that, opening her eyes to glare at him. "Oh yeah? Well, ain’t that just too bad for you. Cry me a river, asshole."

He looked visibly taken aback, though she’d have to act in really good faith to think he didn’t mean to belittle her efforts and "worthyness". She still didn’t shove him or leave, though.

His eyes fluttered around in awkwardness, still managing to look hopeful. "I- eh. Would you... _Sell_ some to me...?"

That was an easy question. "No."

The answer shocked him apparently, because he let out an unholy sceech. " _What?!_ "

"So unfair!" She mocked, making puppy dog eyes at him, which considering it was Gaz ended up looking more unnerving and scary than anything. "Except you didn’t do jackshit to earn it. My soaps took me time and effort to make, they’re my craft. I don’t want them to go to someone like you."

He relaxed a bit, maybe he did understand her reasoning then. He crossed his arms. "Ugh. What do I have to do to "earn it" then? _EventhoughIalreadydowaymorethananyofyou_." He faked a cough after mumbling the last part at a speed she wouldn’t have understood if she wasn’t the sister of professional rambler Dib. Gaz rolled her eyes.

"I don’t know. Like, do it yourself?" She said it casually, as if throwing it out there and not expecting to get much out of it.

His shoulders dropped and his arms hung down as he stared at her through insecure eyes. He eventually sputtered and replied, "I- Where do I begin?"

It was her turn to be shocked. Her eyes opened slightly in surprise and her composure thinned as she realized she’d have to answer his question. "Uh... I mean, can’t you google it or something?"

"Is your soap recipe documented somewhere?" He asked simply, as if it was the logical

"What? Not really, but I mean melt and pour soaps aren’t that wildly different from one another, especially if all you really care about is the scent then-"

It sounded like gibberish to Zim if his expression was any sign. "-Can’t you just show me?"

Gaz was frustrated at having her simple explanation interrupted, but quickly realized the depth of what he was suggesting. "Zim. _You_ want _me_ to _teach_ you?" She didn’t mean to sound judgemental, but the genuine confusion and shock was not one she had the energy to hide.

He frowned and his face darkened again. "Not TEACH! Zim does not need to be taught anything! Simply... Zim would like to eh, have a demonstration to better accumulate data on the right process of making this "soap", yes yes."

This whole situation had waves of surprise roll into her one after the other and she let out a laugh at the ridiculousness of it all. Zim seemed startled at her chuckle, but she paid it no mind. "Like hell I’m letting you make me do all the work. If we do this, you’ll be working too."

He frowned and started as if he was about to object or complain. "I- Wait what? Are you actually open to doing that?"

Still smiling, she raised her fingers to her chin in contemplation. "Hmm. What do I get if I do?"

If Zim was trying to appear in control, he was failling. His voice wavered as he replied. "Would you be interested in weapons?" She opened her eyes and stared at him in neutral judgement. "Uhh, a new whatever the device you’re always holding is?" She didn’t react. "Technological upgrades to yours? Hacked video games?? I’ll leave you alone??!" His voice was growing more and more desperate, contrasting with her unnerving calm.

After his little show of panic her smirk only grew. "Hmmm, how about... All of these? Except customizations to my gameslave, I don’t trust you not to bust it, plus, gaming contests often turn down entries with modified consoles."

He could see she wouldn’t be convinced otherwise, evidently. With or without the spark in her eyes -one she could have sworn made him shudder in what she hoped was fear-, Gaz Membrane wouldn’t back down. He pulled on his antennas that had popped out under his wig in conflicted frustration, groaning not so internally, and she was almost worried he’d hurt himself frankly.

He finally croaked out an answer forcefully. "Fine!! Deal! I’m not shaking you dirty human hand like in your earthen custom though!"

Gaz smirked, going in for the kill. "Oh but Zim, aren’t you doing this in the first place because I’m cleaner than you? You practically begged me to let you hang out with me."

He choked out a cry of indignation. "Did not!"

Her smile didn’t relent as he looked just about ready to explode from anger and embarrassment. He eyed her contentedness warily. "Why are you so willing to show me in the first place?"

She chuckled. "You’re weird. You’re funny when you embarrass yourself."

He instantly blushed in disbelief. But then a thought hit him, and it gave him the unwise courage to smirk. "In other words, you find Zim so entertaining that you wish for him to pass more time with you! Say, little Gaz, when was the last time you hit me?"

Neither of them pointed out that it wasn’t his turn to ask a question, and it didn’t seem to matter. Time suspended itself, not bothering Zim’s glee in the least.

Gaz’s smile fell to be almost imperceptible and she raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Are you leaving your shopping cart behind?"

"Ah!! My perfect shopping disguise!!" Eyes wide with realization, Zim whirled and rushed to get his cart back with him.

Gaz looked at him almost trip on his feet as he scrambled away. Surprisingly, she wasn’t feeling dreadful as the weight of what she had agreed to crashed into her.

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven’t caught my unreadable hints, after having the staring contest with Gaz, her opening her eyes make him flustered because of its association with it instead of the usual pain which would have made him scared.
> 
> I tend to base fic concepts on unconventional footing or in this case toxic/creepy romance tropes, and here this kinda all came from me being like "what if he told her she smells good randomly and obsesses over it but like, it’s not creepy and only reasonably weird considering it’s Zim?" I think I succeeded, soapmaking is a vry wholesome activity to do in pairs and I’m glad I invested time in it, not that it’s anywhere near over yet.
> 
> Constructive criticism welcome! I’m working on making my writing more fast paced, i get hung up on the tiniest of details


End file.
